1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved room air sterilization device directed towards eliminating air-borne germs, bacteria, viruses, and other micro-organisms in indoor environments while causing little, if any, heating of the room temperature where the device is located. In particular, the present invention is seen to include greatly improved and highly efficient air sterilization means comprised of a ceramic material and formed so as to maximize a ratio of surface area of the ceramic material which is exposed to the air per volume of ceramic material utilized in the device and also so as to minimize a resistance to heat flow through the ceramic material. Consequently, air sterilization means having an increased height dimension, without bulkiness, may be utilized so as to permit unsterilized air passing therethrough to have a greater resident air time while simultaneously, to cycle more rapidly throughout the indoor environment where the device is employed.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is commonly known that a wide assortment of harmful and germs, bacteria, viruses, and other micro-organisms exist, some of which remain alive in and are carried by air. This fact presents an especially acute problem to individuals confined to closed or indoor environments where adequate ventilation may not be provided and/or where natural disinfectants such as direct sunlight are not available. Furthermore, closed or indoor environments often retain moisture and dampness which can propagate mold, mildew, fungus, and the like which among other things, can create foul odors. Additionally, the presence of germs, viruses, and bacteria in the air obviously pose substantial health risks including a variety of respiratory problems, harmful illnesses, infections, and contagious diseases. These problems are even more acute for individuals facing particular health risks such as those suffering from a weak or compromised immune system or a sensitive respiratory system, for example.
In the past, those skilled in the art relating to room air sterilization devices have attempted to address these concerns. For example, there are many room dehumidifying devices currently available on the market. Such devices are structured to reduce the amount of moisture in a room so as to reduce the formation of mold, mildew, and fungus. These devices, however, are not oriented towards killing germs, bacteria, viruses, molds, etc. since their primary function is simply to reduce the dampness or moisture content of the air in a room instead of to kill germs, viruses, bacteria, and the like which may be present in the air.
Others have attempted to address this problem by devising room air sterilization devices which are structured to sterilize air by heating it. These known, air sterilization devices have not been entirely satisfactory however. This is because in order to rid the air of germs, bacteria, mold and the like, large quantities of the air must be passed through a device which heats the air to extremely high temperatures. Consequently, known air sterilization devices are believed to significantly raise the temperature of the room where they are located, and consume substantial amounts of energy in the process. Although an increase in the room temperature may be desirable in some situations, such as during the winter or in colder climates, in most instances an increase in a room's temperature is undesirable and renders the air sterilization device impractical for everyday use. To avoid this undesirable result, some have attempted to provide air sterilization devices which heat and sterilize very small quantities of air, but such devices are thought to be either incapable of destroying air-borne germs and bacteria or ineffective in terms of the number of germs and bacteria which are destroyed. It will be appreciated then, that a serious difficulty exists in the art, namely, to provide a device which can heat unsterilized air passing therethrough to the extremely high temperatures required for complete sterilization without significantly raising the temperature of the indoor environment where the device is used.
At least one effort has been made to provide an air sterilization device comprising a large quantity of conductive ceramic material, operably connected with heating elements which produce a quantity of sterilizing heat, and through which air will pass, become heated and thus sterilized. These type of known air sterilization devices are still, however, thought to be inefficient. First, such devices are primarily comprised of a rather large and bulky block or cube of ceramic material mass. Second, bores must then be formed within the mass of ceramic material or it must otherwise be drilled into so as to provide a plurality of air passages therein and through which unsterilized air can pass to become heated and sterilized. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the drilling or boring of holes in ceramic material is almost always done manually, and is a very time-consuming, tedious, and labor-intensive process which constitutes an expensive manufacturing procedure in the production of such air sterilization devices. Furthermore, because these known types of devices generally consist of a single mass of ceramic material it is very difficult to increase or expand the capacity of the devices after manufacture so as to include a greater number of holes or bores in the ceramic or to increase the size of the ceramic material. More significantly, however, it is not possible to drill holes or bores very close to one another in the mass of ceramic material employed by such devices as it is subject to cracking. As such, none of the existing devices provide for substantially thin walls between the air passages, as increasing an overall length of the drilled bores necessarily increases the spacing that must remain therebetween. Specifically, in order to prevent the cracking of the ceramic material, the air passages are bored or drilled a sufficient distance apart from each other so as to ensure thick walls between air passages and prevent the cracking or collapse of the ceramic material. This poses an extremely inefficient design in that a substantial quantity of ceramic material is required to be heated or heated through in order to sterilize a very small quantity of air coming into contact with the surface of the ceramic material. The inefficiency of such devices will be understood when one considers that the unsterilized air passing through the device is cleansed or sterilized only by passing through the heated bores or drilled holes in the mass of ceramic material. Yet, severe limitations exist on the number of bores or drilled holes which can be formed in the block of ceramic material as well as on the diameter of the bores or drilled holes. It is seen, therefore, that in order to achieve an operable air sterilization device, an unnecessary amount of ceramic material mass has had to be utilized, so as to present a sufficient number of heated passages through which unsterilized air may pass, which is a waste of materials. Perhaps worse, an unnecessary amount of energy must also be expended to heat through the entire mass of ceramic material, the majority of which plays no part whatsoever in contacting or sterilizing air, which is again, inefficient. It will also be appreciated from fundamental principals of heat transfer that the greater the distance between the bores or drilled passages within the ceramic block, the more difficult it would be for adjacently disposed passages to share heat provided by a common heating element. Moreover, as heat passes through the ceramic to outer bores within the mass, heat is continually lost when it encounters ceramic material, resulting in greater energy requirements, and resulting in those outer bores not becoming heated to an ideal air sterilizing temperature.
It will be understood that these features of known air sterilization devices which use ceramic material not only reduce efficiency but typically, increase the amount of heat which is dissipated and consequently, raise the temperature of a room where the device is located. One known existing device sought to include ceramic material which utilized bores of a relatively short height, namely, about 4 to 12 centimeters in an effort to avoid causing an increase in the temperature of a room where the device was located. One disadvantage of this type of device is that any one air particle is exposed to the heat within the ceramic material for a much shorter distance than it would in an air passage of greater height, and thus, air flow through the short air passages must be slower if the same degree of sterilization is to be provided. Another problem with this type of device is that even though the air passages very near or directly in contact with a heating wire become sufficiently hot to sterilize the air, the air passages at or near the outer peripheral walls of the ceramic material mass cannot approximate the same temperature as heat is lost as it passes through the large masses of ceramic material between adjacent air passages, and heat is lost to the air around the exterior of the ceramic material mass. Consequently, existing devices are not able to uniformly heat all of the air passages within the ceramic material and the air exiting these devices is inconsistently sterilized.
Accordingly, there still remains a significant need in the art for an improved room air sterilization device which can eliminate air-borne germs, bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms without raising the temperature of the room where it is located. In particular, there is a need for a room air sterilization device which utilizes greatly improved and highly efficient air sterilization means in the form of ceramic material formed to minimize the amount of ceramic material which is not exposed to the air and which may resist heat flow, to promote the sharing of heat between air passages, to allow for air passages having a taller height dimension, thereby resulting in a greater resident air time, faster air cycle time and greater disbursement into larger rooms than would have been possible utilizing known devices. There is also a need for an air sterilization device which permits the air sterilization capacity of the device to be expanded by allowing facilitated attachment of additional air sterilization means, after or before the device has been completely manufactured and assembled. The present invention is specifically designed to address these needs which remain in the art.